A tranquil pasture

The present lot is executed in the early 1860's, when the artist spent most of the year in the village of Oosterbeek in Gelderland. The landscape painter Johannes Wernardus Bilders, who had settled in Oosterbeek in 1852, attracted a group of young landscape painters like Johannes de Haas, Anton Mauve, Paul Gabriel and Willem Maris to Oosterbeek, who worked under his guidance. Mauve was especially inspired by the work of the younger Willem Maris. Working closely together had an influence on his work. E.P. Engel attributes the presence of ducks in the paintings of Mauve to Maris' influence from 1820 onwards (see E.P. Engel, Anton Mauve, Utrecht 1967, p. 33).